Raurimu railway station was a station on the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

, and in the

Manawatū-Whanganui Manawatū-Whanganui (; spelled Manawatu-Wanganui prior to 2019) is a region in the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand, whose main population centres are the cities of Palmerston North and Whanganui. It is administered by the Manawat ...

region. It opened in 1906 and closed in 1978. It was known as Pukerimu from 1906 to 1908.Juliet Scoble: Names & Opening & Closing Dates of Railway Stations in New Zealand
/ref> The

Raurimu Spiral The Raurimu Spiral is a single-track railway spiral, starting with a horseshoe curve, overcoming a height difference, in the central North Island of New Zealand, on the North Island Main Trunk railway (NIMT) between Wellington and Auckland. It ...

is from the station, and rises to the National Park railway station on the

North Island Volcanic Plateau The North Island Volcanic Plateau (often called the Central Plateau and occasionally the Waimarino Plateau) is a volcanic plateau covering much of central North Island of New Zealand with volcanoes, lava plateaus, and crater lakes. It contains t ...

; on a direct line this would be a

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

of 1 in 24, but the Raurimu Spiral reduces the gradient to a (still steep) 1 in 52.

History

In 1906 the administrative office of the northern section of the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

(PWD) which was building the NIMT was moved to a group of "tents and huts" at Raurimu, and at its zenith the Raurimu community numbered a thousand men, women and children. Trains started running to Raurimu from 13 December 1906. From 10 May 1907 goods were carried to Raurimu by rail. Trains started running to the next station at Waimarino (National Park) from 23 December 1907. The NIMT was opened to through

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

trains from 9 November 1908, though only southbound expresses stopped at Raurimu. Raurimu_railway_station_ATLIB_120238

A by 5th class station was built in 1906, with stationmaster's, lobby, and ladies rooms, a by platform, loading bank, cattle yards, by goods shed with verandah, privies, urinals, water tanks and passing loop for 58 wagons. Raurimu closed to passengers before December 1975, The settlement of Raurimu in the early 20th century had two bush tramways for forestry; Knight's tram, Raurimu of the Raumiru Sawmilling Co (1935-1957) and a tramway of the Pokata Timber Co (1930-1957). "Knight's tram, Raurimu", in a clearing in the bush, hauling logs. ATLIB 293489.png, Knight's tram and a steam hauler, Raurimu, in a clearing in the bush A bush locomotive at Raurimu. Price type "O". ATLIB 293277.png, Price type "O" bush locomotive at Raurimu, ca. 1917 Raurimu railway station ATLIB 120238.png, Offices of the Tamaki Sawmill Co. at Raurimu railway station File:Raurimu spiral.jpg,

in 2007 (no remains of tramways visible) File:Raurimu Spiral map.png, Map of the spiral, from

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Manawatū-Whanganui Rail transport in Manawatū-Whanganui Railway stations opened in 1906 Railway stations closed in 1978 1906 establishments in New Zealand